Shimla, January 19
Proposing a substantial hike in the fee and examination and other charges, Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) is trying to convince student outfits to agree to the move, which is likely to be placed before the executive council (EC) on January 31.

Even though the finance committee of the HPU has already given approval to the proposed hike, considering the opposition that is likely to come in from the student outfits, the authorities are keen that the students are convinced on the issue. The hike will be made as per the recommendations of the resource mobilisation committee made in 2006 that had specifically been constituted to suggest ways and means to generate additional income for the cash-strapped HPU.

Interestingly, this is for the first time since its inception in 1970 that the HPU is enhancing fee, including that of examination, duplicate mark sheet, re-evaluation, hostel and other services. The hike is expected to rake in an income of Rs 4 crore, which will come in very handy for the HPU which is finding it difficult to even manage the salaries of its employees.

The hike, ranging between 40 to 60 per cent, will affect almost 3.50 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled with the HPU. The hike is likely to affect students doing professional courses like MBBS, engineering, MBA, MCA and MTech the most along with 2,000 students currently residing in hostels on the HPU campus here. An annual expenditure of Rs 2.50 crore is made by the HPU on electricity and the transportation facility extended to students.

The university authorities are taking the plea that a hike in fee after 40 years of its existence is fully justified. “In some cases like obtaining a duplicate copy of a mark sheet, the HP Board of School Education charges over Rs 400 as compared to a pittance of Rs 30 charged by the HPU,” said a senior official of the HPU, defending the fee hike. The authorities say the hike will be made keeping in view the charges being levied by other universities in the region.

Though the HPU authorities are keen on the hike, it remains to be seen whether the government will favour it considering that the Assembly elections are due by the end of this year and this could emerge as a major issue.

In fact, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has even convened a roundtable conference on January 23 to deliberate on the issue. They have invited academics, students, teachers and employees to take part in the conference and air their views on the issue. Adopting a middle-path approach, the ABVP is in favour of a nominal hike but at the same time wants improvement in the services.

The Students Federation of India (SFI) on the other hand has already made its mind clear that they will hold an agitation against the hike, which is bound to hit poor students. SFI leaders have warned that in case a hike is made, they will launch a statewide agitation.

Shimla, January 19
The tribal belt and other high-hill areas of the state groaned under arctic conditions as a renewed spell of snow, accompanied by strong icy winds, lashed parts of the state today.

Salooni in Chamba recorded 85 cm of snowfall over the past 24 hours and the famous tourist resort of Dalhousie 50 cm, throwing life out gear. The heavy snow again blocked the Pathankot-Chamba highway. The Dhauladhar ranges overlooking the Kangra valley were also having heavy snow which extended to Dharamkot and McLeodganj. The lower areas of Kangra, Chamba, Mandi and Kullu were having intermittent rain.

Solang Nullah and the Rotang Pass were experiencing heavy snow, while Manali had 9 cm of snowfall overnight. Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda and most other areas of the region remained enveloped in thick fog throughout the day, which brought down the day temperatures to the freezing point. The city had traces of snow off and on.

Tissa had the highest 60 mm of rainfall, followed by Chamba 37 mm, Kangra 23 mm, Kheri 19 mm, Jogindernagar 16 mm, Bangana 14 mm and Guler and Nagrota Suriyan 7 mm each.

The cold wave became more severe with the minimum temperatures dipping further over the past 24 hours across the state. Keylong, the district headquarters of the tribal Lahaul and Spiti district, was the coldest at -12.6°C and had a maximum of -0.9°C , followed by Kalpa in Kinnaur which recorded a minimum of -7°C and a maximum of 3.7°C , Manali (-1°C and 4.6°C ), Palampur (1°C and 11.5°C), Dharamsala (1.7°C and 12.4°C ) and Solan (2.4°C and 11.6°C ).

Shimla had a minimum of -1.8°C and a maximum of 4.5°C , while Kufri had a minimum of -3.3°C and Narkanda -5°C .

Meanwhile, the administration succeeded in opening the Theog-Kotkhai-Chopal and the Chopal to Kupvi via Sainj roads. Buses from Shimla to Chopal were being plied via Paonta Sahib and efforts were being made to open the Kotkhai-Rohru, the Rohru- Narkanda and the Rohru-Janglik roads.

Deputy Commissioner Onkar Sharma said essential commodities were being made available through fair price shops and 20 gas agencies in the district had a stock of 4,500 refills. Besides, seven truckloads of refills had been dispatched to snow-bound areas of the district.

Solan, January 19
Terming the recommendation of the screening committee constituted to select eligible candidates for the post of Assistant Professor, mycology and plant pathology, as illegal and violation of the constitution and the university statute, the high court has quashed and set aside the selection of Monika Sharma made by the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, on October 2009 as she did not possess a PhD in the discipline concerned.

Acting on a civil writ petition filed by Monika Tomar, who despite possessing the essential qualification of PhD in mycology and plant pathology, had not been given appointment, the high court has stated that since Monika Sharma did not possess the PhD degree in the discipline concerned, her case was not fit to be even recommended by the screening committee.

The judgment has put a question mark on the university selection procedure where the screening and the selection committee selected a candidate whose qualification was inappropriate for the post. Both committees are headed by the Vice-Chancellor.

The high court, while taking a stern note of the matter, in its judgement dated January 13 stated that the university did not undertake any exercise to see that Monika Sharma’s qualification was not in accordance with the laid criteria and this vital aspect was overlooked while recommending her candidature.

The court has also pointed out that though Monika Sharma’s PhD degree in the subjects of molecular biology and recycling microbiology cannot be treated as subjects falling under the expression “mycology” and “plant pathology” as both involve study of different disciplines and mycology did not figure as her subject of study.

The university has, therefore, been directed to consider the case of Monika Tomar for the appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in the subjects of mycology and plant pathology on the basis of a panel prepared by the selection committee on October 22, 2009, within four weeks.

Shimla, January 19
The State Electricity Board Employees Union has opposed the government move to lease out 4.5-MW Thirot Power Project in Lahaul-Spiti to a private party for its operation, maintenance and capacity augmentation.

The union alleged that the objective behind the move was to grant benefit to a particular private player having close relations with political bosses. The board had already incurred a huge expenditure on the power project to improve its generation and it was expected to achieve full generation from the next fiscal.

There was no justification for leasing out the project to a private player after investing huge funds on it. It cautioned that it would oppose outsourcing of Thirot as well as other power houses owned by the board and would not hesitate to launch a mass stir against such moves.

The government and the board management had been maintaining that the company was having surplus staff but at the same time it was outsourcing its projects and important works. There was a deliberate attempt to made the board staff idle by outsourcing works.

The union alleged that certain bureaucrats were bent upon destabilising the board, which was providing best possible services to the people from the past 40 years. Instead of outsourcing, the government should provide more hydropower projects to the board for execution to bring down the employee cost.

Shimla, January 19
With the Centre granting Rs 13.32 crore for undertaking major renovation of the 2 MW Rong Tong and 1.5 MW Rukti hydropower projects, the state electricity board has deferred the proposal to outsource the operation and maintenance of the two projects.

In all Rs 28.57 crore has been granted to the board under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) and the rest of the amount will be spent on strengthening the distribution system in the tribal belt. The board had started the process for outsourcing of operation and maintainance of four projects on the pattern of the 3 MW Holi project. Besides Rong Tong and Rukti, the 300 kW Killar and the 450 kW Chamba projects had been picked up for the purpose.

However, now it has decided to first undertake the renovation programme under which Rs 6.75 crore would be spent on the Rong Tong project and Rs 6.57 crore on the Rukti project which will help achieve their full designed energy of 7.64 million units and 6.54 million units, respectively. The renovation works will be competed by 2014-15. The board will take a decision regarding outsourcing of operation and maintenance thereafter.

Meanwhile, the operation and maintenance of the Killar and Chamba projects are being outsourced on a model allowing incentive for efficiency and penalty for a shortfall in generation. There will be an incentive for generating more than 75 per cent of the designed energy ranging from Re 0.15 per unit for 75 to 80 per cent to Re 0.50 per unit for 90 per cent and above.

Similarly, for a shortfall of every 1 per cent in generation (below 75 per cent of the designed energy) a penalty of the cost of 1 per cent of the total power generated in a quarter will be levied. The technical bids are being examined and the financial bids will be opened next month.

In case of the Holi project, the operation and maintenance of which has been outsourced to Gobind Raj Projects, the board is being supplied power at 39 paise per unit for generating 110 lakh units annually. There is an incentive of 5 paise per unit for excess generation and a penalty of 5 paise per unit for shortfall.

Dhaneta (Hamirpur), January 19
Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the state government had taken several steps to improve health facilities in the state and appointed medical staff and created infrastructure at every level.

Addressing a public meeting at Dhaneta today, after inaugurating a newly constructed building of a primary health centre here the Chief Minister said, “The state government has appointed 350 MBBS doctors, 250 Ayurvedic doctors and 750 nurses during the past four years. Besides training of specialists to deliver specialised medical services at different level is in progress.”

The CM said health had been on priority agenda of the state government and MBBS seats had been enhanced from 65 to 100 at IGMC, Shimla, and from 50 to 100 at RPGMC, Tanda, besides increasing PG seats from 39 to 112.

He announced Rs 10 lakh each for Ayurvedic health centre buildings at Jasai and Hathol. He said Rs 3.10 crore was also being spent on various health and school buildings in the area. Education Minister ID Dhiman, MLA Urmil Thakur and other digniteries were also present at the function.

Manali, January 19
The intense cold wave sweeping the upper Kullu valley further tightened its grip as the entire Manali region and the surrounding higher reaches had another fresh spell of snowfall.

The Public Works Department pressed snow-clearing machines and labourers into service today to clear the snow on the road leading to Vashisht village, which is famous for the Vashisht Rishi temple and hot water springs.

All nearby places were bustling with tourists. Hundreds of tourists visited the Hadimba Devi temple, the Vashisht Rishi temple, the Manu Rishi temple and other places of interest.

Meanwhile, the Manali-Kullu national highway and the Manali-Naggar-Kullu (left bank) road has been opened for all vehicular traffic following which tourists started thronging Manali to see the snow.

Vehicular traffic on the Manali-Rohtang Pass road was disrupted due to the fresh spell of snowfall at several places beyond Nehru Kund, about 5 km from here, this morning. Hundreds of tourists made a beeline for Nehru Kund where there was enough snow. The road from Nehru Kund to Solang was slippery because of a thick layer of snow on both sides of the road. All tourists going for a sight-seeing tour of the Solang valley had to stop near Nehru Kund this morning.

Shimla, January 19
Five persons lost their lives and two others sustained injuries in an avalanche that rocked Jungra of Tissa subdivision in Chamba district today.

According to reports reaching here, the avalanche occurred in the Tindi nullah and the victims who were passing through the area were buried under it. The deceased have been identified as Lal Sen, Yusuf, Rasim Muhammad, Haneef Muhammad and Baghusan. The injured persons were Musa and Shri Haneef. — TNS